Hilltop heroes serve the neighborhood at Dominican Cafe

The Vibe Check: Dominican Cafe
Concept: Dominican and other Caribbean staples, desserts and drinks for any meal of the day
Average entrée price: $13, ranging from $8 to $22
Kid’s Menu? No
Alcohol? No
Vegetarian-Friendly: Yes, but most vegetarian options are not entrées
Gluten-Friendly: Yes
Live music? No
Hours: Sun. 8 a.m.-4 p.m., Mon.-Sat. 7 a.m.-10 p.m.
Address: 1223 W 4th St., Wilmington, DE 19805
Website: https://dominicancafe.net/en-US

Entering Dominican Cafe in Wilmington’s Hilltop neighborhood, the first thing that hits you is the smell of freshly-roasted pork shoulder — its texture crisp and fatty, its taste salty and rich.

The pernil’s aroma is impossible to escape in the small restaurant. On one side of the counter are the cooks, who have developed an unspoken understanding of how to avoid bumping into each other. On the other side are customers standing shoulder-to-shoulder, ordering in a mixture of Spanish and English. 

Owner Rebeca Gόmez has no problem weaving through the crowd, and it’s no wonder why — she lives upstairs.

Her father, Andrés, is equally at home in the restaurant. His wedding photo is hung in pride of place behind the counter. 

Andrés bought Dominican Cafe from his brother and sister-in-law in 2000. Andrés and his daughter have passed ownership back and forth several times over the years. Since 2021, Rebeca has taken the reins as Andrés has enjoyed retirement with his wife. 

Andrés spends half of the year in the Dominican Republic, where he hangs out with a group of hip, healthy people over 70 who call themselves “the people of the future” instead of senior citizens. The remainder of his time he spends in Wilmington, reading voraciously or pitching in at Dominican Cafe by taking orders or making batches of sofrito. 

Andrés has been working since he was 4. He got his start on his family’s farm in the Dominican Republic, where they sold milk and his mother’s homemade coconut candies.

Andrés opened his first corner store in the Dominican Republic at 21 and immigrated with his family to the United States in 1994. When he couldn’t find a job in New York, he moved to Delaware to work at his brother’s corner store.

Andrés didn’t let his daughter begin working as early as he did. Rebeca began pitching in at Dominican Cafe when she was 19.

Today, Rebeca still turns to her father for advice, whether it’s about family recipes, finances or personal struggles. 

“He’s my library,” she said. 

Rebeca plays a similar role for the kids and teens who enter Dominican Cafe. She’s always offering advice and telling them to stay out of trouble, and has made a habit of giving $10 or $20 out of her own pocket to those placed on their school’s honor roll.

She also lends books to local kids. Last November, she lent 19-year-old Ryan Evans the personal finance book “The Richest Man of Babylon.” Evans never finished it. He was killed in a quadruple shooting in March.

The shooting, which is still unsolved, took place just a block away from Dominican Cafe Mini Market & Food, Rebeca’s corner store in the West Center City neighborhood.

“It messed me up. For a little bit, I couldn’t even go to the corner store,” Rebeca said, tearing up. “It happens. It can happen to anybody. But it hurts when it’s close.”

Rebeca is well aware that Wilmington has a reputation for violent crime. The Hilltop neighborhood, where Dominican Cafe is, is no stranger to issues with drugs and gun violence, which have plagued the community for decades.

Though Rebeca has observed positive change in her decades living in Hilltop, the neighborhood’s reputation often causes outsiders to ignore its positive aspects.

That’s why Dominican Cafe is participating in West Side Grows Together’s Taste of the West Side event on Saturday, Nov. 7. 

“As soon as somebody says Wilmington, you can see (them make) a different face,” Rebeca said. “People don’t see the good part of it as much as they should.”

Because the Hilltop neighborhood is a hub for Delaware’s immigrants, there is a vast diversity in the cuisine served at local restaurants.

“We have a little bit of everything,” Rebeca said. 

That’s exemplified at Dominican Cafe, which serves a blend of Dominican and Puerto Rican recipes, like sancocho, pastelitos and stew chicken, plus a few classic American dishes for good measure.

Another oft-overlooked aspect of Hilltop is how much residents like the Gόmez family look after their neighbors.

For example, during the COVID pandemic, Rebeca’s mother passed out plates of food to community members. Like a moonlighting superhero, she did so behind her husband and daughter’s backs.

“We closed for a month and a half. But in that time, my mom used to cook big pans of rice and stuff. We were like, ‘What is she doing with all that food?’ She was just waiting for us to go upstairs and sneak out,” Rebeca said. 

Rebeca clearly inherited her mother’s heroic genes. 

For example, Rebeca is the “backup mom” of the 6-year-old daughter of one of her customers. That customer formerly had no one to watch her daughter when she was busy. Two years ago, when that customer first came into Dominican Cafe, her daughter, 4, was still in diapers and rarely talked to anyone. 

“Her first picture and the last picture (are two) very different kids. She talks now. She’s very polite,” Rebeca said. “I take her to school three days a week. … Last time, she said she wanted to be a doctor. Today, she said she wanted to be a teacher.”

Rebeca also has aspirations. She hopes to eventually open a senior living facility where she can hire youth as cooks.

“The youth need to learn from the elderly,” she said, “Those little conversations can help. I think that’s the issue with the youth. We just put them in a box, like, ‘Oh, they’re bad,’ and that’s it. But what are we doing to make them better?”

Rebeca hopes her and her family’s efforts to serve Wilmingtonians will continue to make a positive impact.

“I think we can change, one person at a time,” she said. “We cannot change the whole community, but we have to take the time to (help) at least one child.”